At
an altitude of 120,000 feet, Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner,
clad in a pressurized suit with oxygen tanks, will jump out of a
helium balloon he boarded in New Mexico. At such an extreme height,
Baumgartner plans to reach supersonic
speeds. Within 30 seconds of his free fall, he expects to exceed
690 miles per hour (the speed of sound), and therefore breaking the
sound barrier.

"That
is what we want to find out: What happens to the human body when it
breaks the speed of sound," Baumgartner explains.

If
Baumgartner succeeds, he will hold the record for the highest,
longest, and fastest free fall ever. He will also be named the first
person to break the sound barrier without some sort of vehicle. The
current record holder, Joe Kittinger, serves as Baumgartner's
enlisted consultant. Kittinger set his record in 1960 with the Air
Force at 102,800 feet. It is "a very distant and hostile
place to be," he told CNN.

After
riding the balloon 23 miles upwards, Baumgartner will jump. At that
extreme altitude, blood boils at body temperature. To combat the
extreme environment, he will be wear a face mask that will
de-fog thanks to face-shield heating, allowing Baumgartner to
see his fall, as well as sealed boots and gloves. The parachute on
his back will open automatically as well, if in fact Baumgartner
cannot open it himself, in the worst case scenario. He is also
equipped with a back-up parachute. Baumgartner explains that they
have learned a lot from people who have tried to break records such
as Kittingers', and failed. "Some of these people got
killed."

Even though Baumgartner claims his engineers are
taking every precaution, no one knows exactly what happens to a human
body at that altitude and speed. "You can never say you're not
going to get killed under any circumstances, but we have a lot of
solutions for emergency situations," Baumgartner explains. He
later says that a chain reaction of events would lead to the
worst-case scenario--a fatal fall.

Baumgartner's five minute
fall also has another reason behind it: to demonstrate that future
tourists, returning from space without the aid of a spacecraft,
could in fact return to Earth. "We will show to the world that
egress from high altitude is survivable," he said.

The
dive, financed by Red Bull, is planned for this summer. "I think
it's human nature, you know. Records are meant to be broken. And I'm
a very competitive person. I like the challenge," Baumgartner
adds.

"If you can find a PS3 anywhere in North America that's been on shelves for more than five minutes, I'll give you 1,200 bucks for it." -- SCEA President Jack Tretton